The building, which was built in 1966, was originally known as the North York Centennial Arena. It was renamed in 2001 to honour the former hockey star Herbert H. Carnegie. Each year, it serves about 60,000 residents.

The Building for Recovery coalition is calling for senior levels of government to spend the money they have already committed to infrastructure funding in an effort to not only bolster the construction industry, but also to spur the economy along more generally.

Statistics Canada’s look at building construction price indexes for the fourth quarter of 2020 shows an increase in construction prices of 2.9 percent for residential construction and an increase of just 0.4 percent for non-residential work.

Monte McNaughton did not provide further specifics, but his comments come as the province’s current state of emergency is set to expire on Tuesday.

The project is the first step in the process to widen the highway from two lanes to four between Arnprior and Renfrew. Aecon Construction Ontario East will perform the work.